Rallying round

I came across this interesting piece today about a group of squatters who had settled in a public library that had been shut down by the local council. Before they were finally evicted, the squatters-turned-librarians had endeavored to re-stock the library with books that were donated by the local community, amassing 8,000 books. Not only were the once empty shelves replenished, the commandeered library held events for children and authors and are set to have a pot luck style event this Christmas Day.

I was really taken by the sense of harmony and community in this story. And it was reassuring to know that in a world where we have a myriad forms of entertainment thrust in front of us, there is still such a strong affection for books, not just individually but collectively as well.

If you were a part of this community, which one of your books would you donate?

Great post-I’d probably be too busy trying to get rid of the local council to think about books at the moment; chawbacon yahoos who want to send us all back to the Dark Ages seem to be all too plentiful at the moment… On second thought, let’s toss in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis, shall we?

FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury would be the most perfect book I can think of. But they really wouldn’t learn anything there, they have already learned that and moved beyond it. For the same reason, I would not see the need for LORD OF THE FLIES, either. Maybe it would be wise to give them a $100 gift certifcate to Barnes and Noble and let them buy their own books. The job they have done so far is beyond my imagination. I hope they have Frank Herbert’s DUNE; I am perpetually nervous about those spice worms.

It’s not the quantity of the books that’s important. A library is so much more that just novels. They provide important services to the community, such as research, cataloging community information and history, and education, especially for children, about the ways we can deal with information.

Of course, there are the novels and movies, and you can meet there too, but just donating books and staking them on the shelves is a sad gesture. They know they lost something, but they’re not sure what.